DRS. SEYMOUR GRUFFERMAN and SUE KIMM
"By having related but not identical interests, we pick up a
broader perspective. Ifs like having a personal consultant."
Which One Do You Want?
The Osterhouts frequently receive
phone calls and mail intended for the
other spouse since they share not
only the same profession and same
last name, but also the same first
initial and post office box.
"If people wonder why something
doesn't get done," Shirley explained,
"it's because somehow the request
never got to the right S. Osterhout.
"Everyone at our offices and at
home has been instructed to ask,
'Which Dr. Osterhout do you
want?"' she continued. "In July
when the new house staff arrives, we
often get complete silence.
"One person asked, 'Does he have
a father who's a doctor?' Others say
the Dr. Osterhout," she said. "I'm
always tempted to say, 'I'm the Dr.
Osterhout and he's the other one.'"
Confusion strikes the other M.D.
couples as well. There are now three
Dr. McCartys in the medical center
including Kenneth Sr., a professor of
biochemistry. Sometimes the wrong
one is paged.
Wrong Direction
What happens to the Deeses is that
"a little boy will come to see my
husband," Susan said. "The
Information Desk expects a child to
see me and sends him to pediatrics
instead of urology.
"When we first married, I was a
house officer and I used my maiden
name for the rest of the term," she
said. "When we moved here, I
changed my name."
The decision to use a husband's
name seems to depend on how well
established the woman is
professionally at the time of the
marriage. As Laura Gutman
explained, "I hadn't pubUshed any
papers so there was no important
reason to keep my maiden name
professionally."
4
For Jacqueline Hijmans, on the
other hand, all her credentials both
in her native country of the
Netherlands and in the United States
were in her maiden name.
Choosing a Name
Although the women's movement
may be making it more likely that
women will become physicians, it
doesn't seem to be influencing them
to keep their maiden names.
Dr. Samuel L. Katz, W. C. Davison
professor of pediatrics and chairman
of the department, and Dr. Catherine
Wilfert, associate professor of
pediatric^ and microbiology, use
different names, but the Buckleys
(Dr. Charles E. Ill, associate professor
of medicine and assistant professor
of microbiology and immunology,
and Dr. Rebecca H., professor of
pedatrics, associate professor of
microbiology and immunology and
chief of the division of Pediatric
Allergy, Immunology and
Pulmonary Diseases) and the
Krediches (Dr. Nicholas M.,
associate professor of medicine and
assistant professor of biochemistry,
and Dr. Deborah W., associate in
pediatrics) use the same last name.
About 15 M.D. couples on the
house staff use the same last name.
More and more the paging office
may be asking, "Which Dr. did
you want?"
DRS. JACQUELINE HIJMANS and JEROME S. HARRIS